The U.S. housing market began 2025 under mounting pressure. New-home inventory has surged to levels not seen since before the 2008 crash, as builders struggle with demand, rising costs, and shifting buyer sentiment. According to recent data, unsold new-home inventory in mid-2025 climbed to 124,000 single-family homes, the highest since July 2009. Across all new single-family homes, the unsold stock reached about 511,000 by June 2025, placing months-of-supply near 9.8, a historically elevated level.
At the same time, overall housing activity has cooled. Sales of existing homes fell 5.9% in March 2025, hitting a seasonally adjusted annual rate of just over 4.02 million, and putting unsold inventory at 1.33 million units or 4.0 months’ supply. The median existing-home sale price, however, continues its upward march, reaching roughly $403,700 in March, up 2.7 percent from a year earlier.
In a market swelling with unsold units and rising prices, especially for existing homes, it’s no surprise that many potential buyers have grown skeptical about pre-construction projects. Promises on paper, once alluring, now feel risky: Will the project deliver on time? Will the amenities be real? Will the neighborhood really match what was sold?
PropTech: A Response to the Credibility Crisis
As inventory builds and sales slow, the real estate industry is under pressure to recalibrate. Gone are the days when glossy renderings and aspirational amenities were enough to sell pre-construction units. What buyers increasingly demand is transparency. They want data. They want realism. They want to know what could go wrong and how likely that is.
This demand has helped spur growth in technology-enabled real estate solutions. Advancements in AI, data analytics, and structured valuation are beginning to address longstanding information asymmetries between developers and buyers. One recent academic framework describes how AI-augmented valuation, built on standardized, machine-readable datasets, can reduce appraisal bias and increase consistency in property valuations.
These innovations promise to transform pre-construction sales from speculative marketing ventures into grounded, data-driven decisions.
Enter REALS: Data, Planning, and a Reality Check
That’s where the platform REALS, built by Simplex 3D, aims to disrupt the traditional pre-construction playbook. Rather than offering visions of perfect skyline views or lavish amenities, REALS layers real-world data and urban-planning context into its pre-construction listings. Prospective buyers aren’t just shown stylized floor plans; they’re shown zoning maps, projected infrastructure timelines, neighborhood development overlays, and realistic build-out schedules.
What REALS offers is a kind of “pre-mortgage due diligence.” Buyers can see not just what a developer promises, but what seems plausible based on comparable projects and broader urban-planning realities. That visibility helps manage expectations. It also gives buyers a way to compare proposed units not just on price or renderings, but on feasibility, risk, and value before they commit.
Could This Shift Rein in Over-Speculation and Prevent Market Overhang?
If widely adopted, a platform like REALS could help rebalance the power dynamic in real estate: giving buyers more agency, while incentivizing developers to ground their offers in realism rather than optimism. In a climate where new-home inventory sits at a 16-year high and months-of-supply is approaching double the “balanced market” threshold, such recalibration could help stabilize valuations.
Realism also reduces downside risk for buyers. In a volatile market, with rising prices for existing homes, high carrying costs, and uncertain demand, investing based on data and realistic projections could mean the difference between a solid long-term asset and a speculative liability.
Toward a More Disciplined Pre-Construction Ecosystem
Pre-construction has always thrived on optimism. On belief. On projection. On hope. But when inventory piles up, and economic conditions tighten, that optimism can turn toxic, leaving buyers with unfinished units or value that never materializes.
REALS doesn’t promise to eliminate risk. Nothing can. But by injecting transparency, data, and urban-planning context into pre-construction sales, it may well broaden the path for more informed and responsible home-buying. In that sense, it offers not just an alternative platform, but a new paradigm: one where buyers can decide for themselves whether what’s being sold is worth buying.
Whether the industry embraces that paradigm is another question. But with inventory at multi-decade highs, demand softening, and buyer skepticism rising, the timing could be right.